Dropped by the job site, old job site I should say. Checked in with Alec, the Project Manager, work is proceeding with out me. Hopefully there will only be a couple months required for them to finish the interior. Seems as though it was only 3years ago when i broke ground on the project. Lets see 127 piles(3 foot diameter ,60 feet deep), 12 retaining walls, a footprint of 4000 square feet laced with grade beams, excavating a hillside and then re compacting it to 95% compaction,20 first floor walls, 2nd floor concrete deck, 20 second floor walls, concrete roof deck, concrete pool and spa, site features, driveway, house mechanicals, steel studs, drywall,etc. Sorry about that, it was slightly cathartic, just thinking what i might have left out.
Last Friday was my last day at work, today is Wednesday, I'm now doing my share of preparation for the trip. Cindy has organized the lioness's share ( yup, every time you watch "History Channel" the lion is lying around with a boo radley glazed over stare while momma is out bustin a cap in some wildebeest or Thompson's gazelle, dragging it back a quarter of a mile for shiftless ole dad to gnaw on till he passes out from the exhaustion of chewing gazelle butt) So i went out to Costco to hunt down some Cat and dog food for our pets while gone. There was a nice reversal there me hunting,,,,the lion and stuff...forget it.
Cindy labored on Extended visa's, rental places in the Dordogne,rented our house while we're gone..best thing ever, the financial burden that it lessens is incredible. Just packing for the trip is like solving a rubics cube blindfolded. At one point we were so proud of our selves, we'll take this many bags and ship the rest. Well we packed our luggage and boxed up things we would need. As the postmaster is weighing the two boxes of stuff, we're mentally adding the combined value of both boxes. Well when the amount it would cost is said, we're both retrieving the boxes saying we'll think about it. Plan B, buy another piece of luggage and pack that, not so good, we're going to land at Charles de Gaulle, Paris then tote around three and half bags each. The reality would have been my looking like a sherpa carrying 6 bags while Cindy and Caleigh struggle each with one. Don't get me wrong Cindy and Caleigh are both quite capable, me however not so much, if I see even one of them struggle with the bag for a second, i lose patience and want to do it myself. I just can't bear the thought of missing a shuttle because the girls didn't cross traffic because they wanted to wait for a walk sign. Yep I'm kinda a prick to travel with, it's my viking roots. "For cryin out loud guys can't you rape and pillage any faster we're gonna miss the tide and not get to loot Styrkssltownforyyd." Geesh.........So we're going to end up using one piece of large luggage for two days in paris, and two weeks in Provence, then use the other two large pieces for vacuum storaged warm clothing winter wear for the dordogne. Hope we can use a vacuum when we leave, or we're gonna look like the kids in "Christmas Story" when the mother layers on the clothing.
We had to totally organize the garage. I would have said re-organize, but that would loosely imply it once being organized, we even bought it un-organized, seriously. I think i took four pick-up loads to the dumpster, not a small pick-up either, that allowed us to look at a realistic view of the stuff not even visible at the start of the organizing. We took down alot of personal items a couple really valuable antiques and stored them, to make the house safe for some other family to live in.
Our Realtor did an incredible job finding a nice family to be in our place, even take care of our animals. The two dogs, when they were young, were abandoned, separately, such horrible people, i mean for leaving innocent pets alone somewhere. I can completely understand them leaving my wife's dog, I've even thought about it once,......once a day. Holly is a mix, half Pembroke Corgi, a quarter chihuahua and 1 eighth anteater, and the last eighth is missing. Skye is my daughters dog, i would say that i would miss him the most, but that would imply i would miss Holly. Skye is an Australian blue Shepard, beautiful dog, constantly alert but i don't think he knows why he's constantly alert. Then we have our two cats, Ziggy a calico tiger who thinks hes a dog. And Nipper an older grey tabby, I'm not saying he's old, but when he pees, dust comes out. (Sounds like an old Henny Youngman routine.)
Wow we're going to France in a week.
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